"You couldn't ask for a better team player than Mike, " Player elaborated, "and being in Canada, if we didn't have him in the team, in my opinion, it would be quite flat." As someone who is overly fond of the limelight, Player has his detractors, but this was one decision the veteran got absolutely right. As long as Weir was able to swing a club, he was a certainty to make the International line-up.

When Nick Faldo sat down to consider his captain's picks for the Seve Trophy matches between Britain and Ireland and Continental Europe which get under way at The Heritage in Laois on Thursday, he obviously didn't realise he had a problem.

He was aware that his leading player, Padraig Harrington, had pulled out of the event due to injury and fatigue. Having to do without the highest ranked European player in the world, the reigning British Open champion, the Order of Merit winner, and someone who had featured prominently in three victorious Ryder Cup teams, was bad enough, but faced with a situation where there was suddenly no Irish representative in his side, Faldo would surely have to revise his wild-card strategy.

The logical thing would have been to have ignored the order of merit and the world rankings and to have announced Paul McGinley as one of his picks. "You couldn't ask for a better team player than Paul, " Faldo might have explained, "and being in Ireland, if we didn't have him in the team, in my opinion, it would be quite flat."

If Faldo had been worried about McGinley's current dubious form, he could have ticked the Irish box by nominating Graeme McDowell.

Apart from performing solidly with a couple of 11th place finishes in the last two European Tour events, McDowell also delivered two and half points from a possible four on his Seve Trophy debut in 2005.

But instead of bringing some common sense to the equation, and instead of ensuring that whatever appeal the Seve Trophy had in the first place was preserved, Faldo did something which must have left the people at The Heritage wondering why on earth they had ever pitched for the event. He refused to play the Irish card.

As McGinley bit his lip, Faldo announced England's Simon Dyson and Marc Warren of Scotland as his two picks. Dyson presumably got the vote on the basis of his sixth place at the USPGA Championship at Southern Hills where he closed with a highly impressive round of 64, while Warren, even though less established, won the Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles last month.

"In Marc Warren, I'm bringing a player to the team who has come through a sudden death play-off to claim each of his four professional wins, proving he has a cool head under pressure, " Faldo revealed. All of which must have had McGinley wondering if his record of playing on three successful Ryder Cup teams, and of sinking the winning putt in 2002, proved anything.

Maybe the team name, 'Britain and Ireland', doesn't actually mean Britain and Ireland, and maybe Faldo is fully entitled to roll up at The Heritage with seven Englishman, two Scots and a Welshman. Or maybe he thought that the simple fact of staging the event here was sufficient reward for the spectators who might now be revising how they plan to spend next weekend.

The snub also comes against a backdrop of the Seve Trophy's on-going struggle for recognition. Conceived as something of a tribute to the way that Seve Ballesteros, who will captain the Continental Europe side once again this week, championed Europe's Ryder Cup cause, it has nothing of the scale or the competitive edge of the matches against the USA. To call it Ryder Cup Lite would probably be giving it more significance than it merits.

Downplaying the series in which Britain and Ireland lead by 3-1 is not some media conspiracy either. If Europe A were pitted against Europe B in a trial match for the real thing in Kentucky next year, then there might be some genuine cut and thrust to the event, but a number of leading players, including strong Ryder Cup contenders, have already voted with their feet.

If Harrington's withdrawal was down to injury, Luke Donald, Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter all declared themselves unavailable for Faldo's team, with Westwood saying that, "Unfortunately, the Seve Trophy doesn't count for the Order of Merit".

As for Continental Europe, Ballesteros has been harder hit with Sergio Garcia, Henrik Stenson, Niclas Fasth and Anders Hansen . . . who had all qualified . . . opting out, while Jose Maria Olazabal, Bernhard Langer and Carl Pettersson also turned down invitations to play.

The vacuum means that Justin Rose will be the only player currently in the world's top 20, and that only three of last year's Ryder Cup team from the K Club, Colin Montgomerie, Paul Casey and Robert Karlsson, will be competing.

"When I arrived on the first tee, I thought I wouldn't mind putting on this, " was Sam Torrance's initial take on The Heritage. "I haven't seen such a well-conditioned course, " he added, "and as the years go by, it will be capable of hosting any kind of tournament, the Ryder Cup, anything." The course and its backers deserve better than what has been foisted upon them.

Team golf can be riveting, and it can inspire, but Faldo's bizarre decision has already dampened the enthusiasm that might have surrounded the Seve Trophy. Simon Dyson said he hoped that Irish galleries would come out in force to support the Britain and Ireland team.

When it's not a Britain and Ireland team, why should they?